Glamorama

Rating:
Summary: Maybe his worst
Review: I've read Mr. Ellis's Less Then Zero, Amer. Psycho and Rules of Attraction and enjoyed all three of them more then Glamorama.

Glamorama takes similiar themes from Amer Psycho and makes them more outlandish but Patrick Bateman is a far more intriguing character then Victor Ward/Johnson.

The book does get better after Victor leaves NYC and heads toward Europe (the only reason I gave it 2 stars instead of 1)but I was at this point reading the book just to finish it as I was fairly bored by the non-stop celebrity babble.

Lastly some of the characters were still in college in Rules of Attraction so if you've read Amer Psycho and are dying to read more by Ellis at least read Rules... first and then Glamorama but don't be surprised if Glamorama is a disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: There's a fine line between critique and covet.
Review: It's like hanging out with a beautiful person at a happening hotspot in Manhattan: You have to spend the entire night listening before s/he says one insightful thing right before the lights come on.

Rating:
Summary: I Would Have Given Zero Stars But That Wasn't An Option
Review: This book is quite possibly the worst thing I have ever read. The author just clipped every magazine and wrote down all the designers, actors, models, etc. and put them into a 500 page book. A monkey with a typewriter could have done a better job. Do not waste your money on this one. It quite frankly... [stinks].

Rating:
Summary: no plot necassary for Glamorama
Review: To all the critics saying that Bret Easton Ellis's "Glamorama" has no plot or is disjointed - the debate about whether or not this book, or his other, more popular title, "American Psycho" have a plot could go in infinitely. The point is that the viciousnous of hyperbole and satire are fluorishing throughout the entire book, and that these dark-humored examples of the glamorous life are so engrossing and shockingly accurate at times that you almost have to stop and laugh at how pathetically artificial society and the plastic world of Hollywood can be. That is what makes this book - and Ellis's "American Psycho" so enjoyable and worthwhile to read. In living in the 'Wannabe Hollywood' suburb of Detroit-Grosse Pointe, I have seen more than my share of disgusting, robotic people with no minds of their own, no positive impact on this world, and zero personality. This book is a fresh reminder of how important it is to not lost yourself in pety things like money, fame, and of course, glamour.

Rating:
Summary: Worth buying right now!
Review: Few contemporary authors (with the possible exception of Poppy Z. Brite) can inspire such a knee jerk, love/hate reaction with their work as Bret Easton Ellis. The writer who was both vilified and praised for his last novel, American Psycho, returns after a several year hiatus with his newest offering, Glamorama.

Glamorama is more of Ellis doing what he does best. Writing hip, disaffected, vapid rich kid characters who live a life most of us only dream of. But, don't be fooled; there's more going on here than a lament on what it's like to be young, rich, and apathetic. That's part of the allure of his work...there's always more going on just beneath the surface.

This book is sort of the literary equivalent of From Dusk Till Dawn. Like that film, this story starts out one way, then takes a big twist in the middle and becomes something else. In Glamorama, we follow the exploits of Victor Ward, a twenty-something New York model who's working his way up to being an A-list celebrity. Victor spends his days in NYC preparing to open a new nightclub, deciding who's cool and who's not, fretting about his abs, screwing his boss's fiancée, and waiting to snag a role in Flatliners 2.

As the events in New York come to a head, the plot abruptly shifts. Victor leaves New York and sets sail for London aboard the QE2 at the insistence of a man named Palakon. He's being paid $300,000 to find Jamie Fields, a former classmate from Camden, and bring her back to the States. From this point on, things become very surreal. Victor meets a woman on the ship, who mysteriously disappears. He reaches England and finds Jamie living with several other famous models, including Bobby Hughes. Little does he know, they're terrorists.

Victor then spends the second half of the novel trying to unravel the web of lies he's become entangled in. Part of the fun is that he's so clueless he's not equipped to deal with the situation. Unable to come to terms with reality, he imagines that everything that happens to him is part of some film. He interacts with an assistant director, he does things according to what the "script" calls for, and he plays his part in the unfolding drama willingly.

The tension builds near the climax with this most unlikely hero having to try and thwart the terrorists while escaping with his own life.

Glamorama features some violent segments not for the weak of stomach including a plane explosion written in such harrowing detail that I will board my next flight with a great deal more trepidation than normal. And while the violence isn't as extreme as American Psycho, I found it more disturbing because of the inherent realism behind it. The Bateman murders were gleefully over the top...the terrorist attacks in this book come across as much more believable and much more frightening because of it.

With this book, Ellis takes a step back from American Psycho, using the life of Victor Ward and the landscape of New York City to show a world that is perhaps capable of producing someone like Patrick Bateman. In Victor's world, just like Patrick's, people are interchangeable and only worth knowing if they're more rich or famous than you.

All in all, Glamorama's an interesting dichotomy. On one hand, it's perhaps Ellis' most accessible novel to date. On the other, the surreal nature of Victor's reality makes it a book that begs for a re-read upon completion just to put all the pieces together. Still, it's a novel that rips along, full of Ellis' stylish prose and deft characterizations. And because of that, I give it my highest recommendation....

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your hard earned money and time
Review: Being an avid reader of Chuck Palahniuk I was recomended to read Ellis as well. Having seen American Psycho (I know, I should have read the book) gave me an idea of what to expect from his work. This was TERRIABLE! The first part of the six part novel was ramblings of celebrity name droping and designer clothes, with little or no plot, and seemed to drag on and on. The book does pick up after the painful first section and a fairly interesting plot does begin to unfold, but then gets so rediclous it almost drove me to throw the book across the room (but by now you're 300+ pages into it and too late to turn back). I tormented myself through the rest of the novel, hoping the ending would help justify my reading this, but no. The ending was as bad as the rest of the book. I understand the point of this book, and do share some of his views he expressed in this book, but I found the story-line to be so terriable with the exception of when it seems that the story almost becomes believable. I am not writing Ellis off quite yet though, I plan to give his work another chance.

Rating:
Summary: What's the point?
Review: This book was really stupid, the worst thing I have read in at least 5 years. The first 275 pages have no plot, just a listing of celebrities and brand names. Then when there is a plot, it is just dumb.

Rating:
Summary: I couldn't even finish it
Review: Glamorama is pretty much a follow to Victor's life from Camden College in "Rules of Attraction". If you saw the movie, he's the guy that goes to Europe through that quick edit footage. The book's written pretty much the same way, except he's in NY. The run-on sentences make for a quick read, but becomes boring. I couldn't even finish the last few pages.

Rating:
Summary: Ellis' schitzo foray into writing with a plot........
Review: This was one of those fascinating books that is hard to put down but unfortunately leaves you frustrated. Arse-kicking ultraviolent terrorist supermodels is an interesting premise but this is really a book about chaos, reality perception, and fiding out who you are. The ending was disapointing and underwhelming and many complain about the violence and pornographic sex but this book is tame compared to Elllis' American Psycho.

Ellis took six years to write this and you can tell that from the tone and direction the book takes through its progress that Ellis himself changed during this period. I commend him for trying something (somewhat) new with this book becuase by the time I finished American Psycho, I was getting a little tired of his plotless formula. Victor Ward as a character is a little base to front a self discovery novel but it Ellis' wit and prose carries the book well enough.

Bottom Line: fans of Ellis should of course pick this up but again I think that Ellis books should be read in order. Those who have read all of his books will be inexplicably drawn to this one as I myself was. Wether Ellis sticks with his typical ambience piece or goes for another linear plot book is fine by me because I am just curious to see what he will do next.

People not familiar with Ellis' works should start with Less Than Zero.

Rating:
Summary: Fashionable terror
Review: A few years after finishing and reviewing Glamorama, I still feel like the novel is an over engineered project. For a writer who has never been concerned with traditional narrative or plot, Ellis' most plot driven book is not a whole lot of fun and is emptier than most of the models in its pages.

Ellis has made a career out of moralizing about the empty world of American consumer culture at the end of the 20th century. People with a lot of money, a lot of time, and very little to show for it all walk around looking great and mistaking each other for someone else (though it never seems to matter in the end). Occasionally, they feel something akin to emptiness, but they're usually too wrapped up in their own world of Xanax and restaurants to do anything about it.

Glamorama includes everything Ellis has done before, and then some. There's a sense that the novel got a bit out of control, even if it is the most plot driven work he's ever done. It should probably be two separate books.

Victor Ward is the "It boy" of the moment, a young model/actor/ beautiful person. He's floating through life in a haze of other beautiful people, fashion shows and booze and drugs and a sadly repetitive lifestyle that is, in fact, going nowhere. Ward is recruited by a mysterious figure who possibly works for Victor's US Senator dad to track down an old schoolmate in Europe.

Long, long story short, Victor becomes tied up with a cell of supermodels turned international terrorists. They blow up stores and subway stations and passenger jets. They murder and torture people. Their motives are never clear. And in the end, like Patrick Bateman's crimes, they may be imagined.

Ellis throws in a number of devices that half work and half tire the reader into a submission where we're too worn out to really care about them at novel's end. Is there a real film crew making a movie around Victor? Is the film crew in his head? Are the constant references to confetti everywhere, and an awful smell, and a song playing somewhere in the background reminders that this is not real?

I ask because I thought that unlike American Psycho or the short pieces from The Informers the story was suffocated by the trappings and the details until it seemed like none of it mattered. That would be fine if Victor Ward was likable or interesting enough to hold our attention. But he's as shallow as everything around him. Also, with the onslaught of celebrities and fame and glitz, there is absolutely no indication that anybody in Glamorama has anything inside of them--anything--that would indicate why they are famous to begin with. Perhaps not models, but maybe actors or musicians or other artists. There needs to be some kind of talent, some spark, that would set these people apart from anyone who is good looking but just not famous.

Ellis himself has said that he's not sure if he's going to write novels anymore after this. I don't think there's a whole lot more he can do with the milieu he launched into at a very young age with Less Than Zero. I think he really hit a stride with American Psycho. Patrick Bateman was funny, he was silly, he was vulnerable--all elements that came out clearly when the book became a film. And whether or not the murders and the rapes were all in his mind or not, Bateman was still somewhat likable; at the very least you could laugh at him. I think Glamorama would be unfilmable, that Victor Ward cannot possibly carry a story.

This is a difficult book to recommend. It is not Ellis' best work. However, those who enjoyed American Psycho will find the first half of the book treading familiar ground and may enjoy it. There is nothing new here, though. Even the sex and violence, described in excessive detail (an entire chapter dedicated to an airline disaster) do not hold the reader the way they did in American Psycho. Oddly enough, these scenes in Glamorama actually seem less important to the plot than they were in American Psycho. In the end it really does look like a work that took the better part of ten years, a project where the wheels came flying off yet the book kept moving.